Here I was out on my normal daily walk and taking pictures when I heard 3 distinct gunshots and yelling a few feet in front of me and to the right.

The gun had a distinct sound that only a Glock could produce and it seemed to be firing hollow point ammunition, or,  it could have been a really cool cap gun for all I know because I know about as much about guns as I know about necrophilia. Just to clarify, I don’t know anything about necrophilia. But I do know police and there were a lot of them around with their guns drawn and smiling.

It would seem I stumbled upon a SWAT team demonstration for visiting dignitaries at the Soi 9 police station. I was deep in thought and taking a picture when I neared the police station parking lot and was so caught off guard by the random gunfire that I actually ducked.

Why do we duck when we hear gunfire?

It seems like a half hearted evolutionary response. It’s like they got to the bottom of the fight or flight response tree and said ” gunfire, evolutionary response=duck because anyone firing a gun at you is definitely aiming at that melon you call a head”.

If I would have been on that evolutionary response team “Duck” would have definitely not been the response. Think about it, you see a violent gang of midgets approaching and you hear gunfire…the response is to duck? And what will you get for your trouble? Shot in the ankles that’s what.

Then again being the smart ass I am there is a good chance that the fight or flight response might have been a shimmy with a 180 degree turn and a Michael Jackson ankle kick. Not anymore embarrassing than ducking really. Well, the cops that saw me got a chuckle at my duck so I doubt the addition of a shimmy and ankle kick would have helped much.

After watching and photographing the events at the police station I got to thinking that maybe following some cops around for the day might be interesting. Obviously the SWAT team was only for show and I doubted they would be called to duty, but there are plenty of boys in brown around.

So, I picked the first police officer I saw and followed him. Fortunately for me he was on foot and didn’t seem to be going far. As a matter of fact he pretty much just walked out into Beach road at Soi 9 and stood there. I got excited when it looked like he might pull someone over or blow his whistle or something but it never happened. My first 15 minutes in real photo journalism wasn’t going so great but you have to admit he cuts a very striking figure.

No, if this photojournalism thing was going to work out I was going to have to go mobile so I beat feet up Soi bucow buakow buakhao that road that goes up to the Tuesday/Friday Market and headed to a place where many low lifes and miscreants are known to hang out, Tukcom. More specifically Starbucks. I had two reasons for my chosen location a perfect vantage point to cover any criminal wrongdoings and excellent Chai Tea Lattes.

My instincts were good,  the full leaf tea latte was perfect, and it didn’t take long before the boys in brown were swarming the place. Okay maybe swarming  isn’t the best word as there were only 3 boys in brown; technically only 2 as I think the one was only a trainee. Either way they were there in force and ready to take on any and all scofflaws.

You might be wondering at this point how I knew there was going to be a police action going on in front of Tukcom, well, like any good photojournalist I have my sources in the police station. Okay, maybe not in the police station but close to the police station. Alright, I overheard 2 cops talking about going to Tukcom to roust criminals.

Anyway I wasn’t 2 sips in to my latte man drink when I saw a very suspicious character rolling up the street, for some reason the police ignored him but I couldn’t help thinking there was definitely an arrestable offense there. What that offense could be I’m not quite sure but he’s definitely violated some law. I mean hell start with the mullet and work your way down.

As a side note and historical reference the man pictured above is known around Pattaya as Glitterman. He rides around town every day just as you see him. Actually this wasn’t a full tilt Glitterman day. On special days he uses another bike with more glitz and he trades the cape in for a full length golden trench coat and a swashbucklers hat complete with feathers as pictured below.

As I looked back to my latte manly cup of hot liquid I caught the police out of the corner of my eye swooping in and taking suspects into custody. You could tell this was serious business by the chains used to chain the suspects together. The criminals were clearly confused by the speed and effectiveness of this police raid.

I know, not much of a crime but I don’t care much for gunfire and really enjoy casually sitting while sipping my tea and doing my investigative journalism. Besides red and white striped curbs are clearly no parking areas and laws were broken and luckily I was there to catch the real police work being done.

As it turns out my investigative journalism career is pretty much stalled at the moment due to the local papers and news organizations not wanting to post such in depth, hard hitting, gritty and raw stories such as I write. Their loss.

Although I was disappointed that no one wanted this story the night turned out better than expected as I started work on a new investigative assignment on Walking street at Angelwitch A Go Go.This one may take a while as I cultivate informants.